Welcome to Roshar | The Stormlight Archive - Lore Primer

a man stood on a cliffside and watched his homeland fall into dust the water surged beneath so far beneath and he heard a child crying they were his own tears [Music] i have seen the end and i have heard it named the night of sorrows the true desolation the ever storm speak again the hallowed oaths life before death strength before weakness journey before destination the knights radiant must stand again [Applause] the cosmere is the shared universe for many works published by fantasy novel writer brandon sanderson its planetary systems play host to several series with the rocha system being the primary setting for the stormlight archive which we quoted in the opening this system features a central star around which orbit three planets in the habitable zone an asteroid belt and ten gas giants the planet after which the system is named is the second from the sun from an astronomical perspective it differs from earth in a few notable ways for starters it is smaller than our planet with about 90 percent of the earth's circumference and a slightly lower resulting gravity roshar also features three moons salas and mission which circle in unstable orbits and lastly the planet travels around its sun with no axial tilt which means that seasons function very differently than our own and are derived from other phenomena as for rochar itself the planet is mostly covered by water with a single supercontinent primarily occupying its southern hemisphere the landmass features many high mountain ranges flat plains and everything in between including some more exotic locations like the shattered plains the pure lake and the horneta peaks we shall examine these in greater detail shortly for now the most important high-level feature of rochar to mention are the high storms massive hurricane-sized weather events which routinely sweep across the world from east to west shaping the face of the planet as they travel closer to the origin these devastate the continent with powerful winds and rain capable of ripping up trees boulders and homes with impunity however as the storm wall advances across the continent it slowly begins to dissipate the end result is an incredible gradation of the environment across the continent with one side looking like a ravaged mars and the other resembling a pristine earth it is these weather patterns which also drive the seasons on roshar for example a few weeks of long rain with more pronounced cold may be referred to as winter while a period of shorter storms and warmer weather may be called the summer to many their distribution often appears random but storm wardens have grown quite accurate with their mathematical derived predictions in any event what is quite obvious to all is the cyclical nature of a period known as the weeping when the high storms generally abate and give way to four weeks of cloudy skies and constant rain it is the 500-day interval between these regular weather events that mark a calendar year the peculiar climate has had quite the impact on the development of the flora and fauna of rocha in the west one can expect to find more familiar creatures like chicken hogs or horses and plants like grass strawberries or wheat in the east however is where things start to become quite alien to our own frame of reference most of life out here has had to adapt to the extreme weather conditions and lack of loose soil it should also be noted that these species are actually the dominant life forms across most of rocha with our own earth-like brethren forming a small minority therefore most flora often grows in protected areas and displays all kinds of adaptive traits meant to withstand the environment such as a hardened exterior a strong grip on the ground and the ability to react to approaching danger for instance grass in the east withdraws into the earth when stimulated leaves fold in on themselves when prodded and a tree may even lay prone when strong winds kick in for people accustomed to such a dynamic ecology in the east the more passive nature of flora in the west can be unsettling here is an evocative passage from the books describing an earth-like environment from the perspective of an outsider the odd grass of the shin lands waved in the wind stubbornly refusing to withdraw even at the strongest of gusts the plane around her was dotted with strange straight trunked trees with stiff skeletal branches full of leaves that didn't withdraw in the wind either the entire landscape had an eerie feel to it nothing moved it was as if an entire land was slow of wit like a man who was born without all his brains one who didn't know when to protect himself but instead just stared at the wall drooling similar differences can be found when it comes to the fauna of roshar most creatures in the east are crustaceans with a hardened outer shell for protection some of the smallest and most common are tiny multi-legged scavengers known as kremlings larger beasts also exist such as the domesticated herbivore culls and the wild carnivorous chasm fiends yet more fascinating creatures exist on land air and sea which we will not have time to cover alongside the flora and fauna of rocha are another important set of entities known as spren these spirit-like beings appear in various forms and are often associated with natural phenomena or emotions for instance windspring might be seen zipping around as a ribbon of lights chasing a high storm while pain spread might swarm like small orange hands or bits of sinew reaching up from the ground amid the carnage of a battlefield there are said to be thousands of different kinds of spren which have been recorded and many more yet to be documented inhabiting the incredible landscape of rocha are several human and humanoid species in the modern era these are divided into roughly 26 territories the major nations of the world have a variety of different physical traits and cultures however none of these groups are monolithic language religion traditions and history are shared across wide swathes of territory in addition there is much cross-pollination among the peoples of roshar with the world being in a constantly evolving state of change that being said there are still distinctions worth mentioning natives of shinovar in the west for example stand out due to their light skin round faces and lack of an epicanthic fold on their eyes they practice stone shamanism and have a strict social order that values farmers above warriors these shin features and the fact that they are tucked away behind the protection of the misted mountains has set them apart from the rest of the continent and led to their isolationist and xenophobic tendencies in sharp contrast to them other far traveling residents of thalenar's three islands in the south east a people of shorter stature darker skin and distinctively long eyebrows they stand out wherever they go and go places they do as the famed phthalan ships and merchants can be found across the known world their activities fuel the thriving trade and banking sectors of the thalin economy which has led to the development of a quite mercantile society where an assembly of merchants and naval officers elect the ruling monarch another major nation to mention is the largely landlocked domain of alethcar its territories are broken up into smaller regions ruled by high princes these spa constantly with their neighbors which only furthers the reputation of the alethi as a warlike people individuals generally stand taller than most in the west with tan skin and typically black hair another distinctive feature is their eye color while not unique anatomically the color of one's eyes forms the basis of a cast system which is split into the upper category of light eyes and the lower category of dark eyes each with their own sub-ranks further social divisions exist when it comes to things like gender roles which would see men do the fighting and women the reading this in combination with the foreign religion has informed much of their culture there are many more peoples of roshar worth discussing but only a few of whom we all have time to mention now these include the clan based unkalaki who shelter around life-giving steam vents atop the frigid hornita peaks the leisurely pure lakers who live in partially submerged villages spread across a vast calf deep expanse of a warm inland lake and the bureaucratically minded people of azir who are said to prefer education to war and who select a leader based on an elaborate voting process involving the judging of essays submitted by candidates the last major group of peoples to mention are the parchment they are a humanoid race with marbled skin of either red and black or red and white across the world they have been reduced to mere servants and slaves on account of their dulled intelligence and general civility little can be said of their social structure as they have largely been co-opted by human society as a labor force alongside beasts of burden civilization on roshar has gone through many epochs which stretch back thousands of years however rather than each of these building upon one another to achieve lasting progress they have been doomed to a cycle of death and rebirth as a result of recurring cataclysmic events known as desolations the coming of each of these dark times was announced by the appearance of ten heralds who trained and led mankind against the enemy void bringers with each desolation came massive consonant spanning wars that would kill off most of the inhabitants of rocha leaving civilization in ruins according to foreign tradition it has been four thousand five hundred years since the last desolation when the void bringers were cast back into the tranquiline hills for good and the heralds followed to force them out of heaven as well thus mankind entered the era of solitude and slowly rebuilt itself up to the modern age though not without its own self-inflicted periods of turbulence this era is populated by the peoples we have already discussed they exist in what can crudely be described as a pre-industrial setting with some elements of medieval civilization yet that analogy breaks down pretty quickly upon further inspection from a social perspective for example some parallels may be drawn between the rocharon feudal kingdoms and the nations of a pre-renaissance europe however more parallels can be found when looking at the wider family of earth's civilizations from places like china korea polynesia mexico and beyond yet even these connections are of limited use given just how much more is unique about rocha from a technological perspective for example things might seem somewhat familiar at first glance much of the labour is done manually with farmers tending the fields and craftsmen working their shops while armies march around with sword spear bow and shield [Music] yet while things like steam or coal power are missing energy can be harnessed from other sources for instance fabrial devices are able to use gemstones infused with energy from high storms to perform simple tasks such as lighting heating or moving this is an emerging field of development with many new discoveries and applications being pioneered by researchers one of the most rare and powerful of these are the soul casters which have the ability to transform matter such devices have incredible commercial and military applications yet all of this pales in comparison to the height of ancient technology from the past some remnants still exist today and are highly prized treasures the most famous of these come in the form of defensive equipment in the case of shard plate or offensive equipment in the case of shard shardplate is a piece of full body armor capable of conforming to the shape of the wearer and endowing them with enhanced strength dexterity and speed plate makes the wearer extremely resilient to damage though they are not immune to it suits are powered by gemstones and extreme stress can crack the armor causing energy to leak out and ultimately rendering the armor immobile if sufficiently depleted however when shard plate is re-infused with stormlight it can begin to regenerate the offensive counterpart to the shardplate is the shard blade these are roughly six foot long swords which can be summoned and dismissed at will by their owners appearing and disappearing in a cloud of mist within 10 heartbeats strikes from these weapons are capable of cutting through non-living material as if they were water when living material is struck slightly more resistance is encountered though very little as a blade moves through these biological objects they are not physically damaged but their life force is cut striking an appendage such as an arm for instance will leave it gray and lifeless while striking a spine or head will kill the recipient their eyes burning out in a trail of black smoke shardplate is one of the few materials capable of withstanding a blow from a shard blade as one can imagine the existence of these incredible pieces of technology must be hugely influential indeed they feature heavily in the theology culture politics and warfare of rocha in the modern era less than 100 childblades are known to have been recovered alethcar and jakoved have the most with about 20 each others have to make do with just a handful for example the azish empire is known to loan out their stock to member states while the thalen reserve their five for the high guard in other nations with only a single blade such as herdas it is often the case that the monarchy will tightly control the weapons often deriving their power and legitimacy from its possession the smaller less powerful nations might even have none forcing them to see their protection by other means however a true accounting of these weapons is near impossible given the fact that many are lost or hidden one can often trace the great geopolitical events of history by seeing where these ancient pieces of technology are concentrated for instance in the present day many shard blades and plates are located in the alephi war camps on the shattered plains it is here that the numerous high princes have banded together to fulfill the vengeance pact's goal of delivering justice upon those who were involved in the assassination of their king the ongoing machinations which led to this event and the resulting fallout will have huge consequences for the world of rocha already the gears of bicosmia are turning we hope you've enjoyed this introductory primer to the stormlight archive it's a series that has completely captured the imagination of our team and i can't recommend it enough be sure to pick up a copy of the novels yourself using the link below and stay tuned for more episodes on the cosmere and remember life before death strength before weakness journey before destination a huge thanks izzo to our supporters on patreon and the many talented researchers writers and artists who made this video possible thanks for watching [Music] you

Channel: Invicta

Views: 476,196

Rating: 4.9694819 out of 5

Keywords: brandon sanderson, the stormlight archive, stormlight archive recap, stormlight archive review, stormlight archive lore, welcome to roshar, roshar, cosmere lore, the way of kings, words of radiance, stormlight archive movie, welcome to roshar trailer, stormlight archive trailer, stormlight archive theories, shardblade, shardplate, history of roshar, brandon sanderson interview, alethkar, shinovar, thaylenah, rhythm of war, rhythm of war review

Id: xL4M7Yx0SSE

Length: 18min 37sec (1117 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 18 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Celestial_Blu3]

Roshar is a mood! I’ve been trying to emulate a lot from that without straight out copying it for a long time. The rhythms and pure tones of each god, the sapient humanoids that can shapeshift based on which fairy they have in their gemheart. The knights radiant. The magic system itself has so many twists - ||anti-investiture is something I wouldn’t have seen coming at all|| that I’m so hype for book 5

In fact, I’d be very interested to see the future of the genre and see if Stormlight inspired anyone else as books carry on coming out. In particular, Brandon wants to see the word “fabrial” come into the cultural vernacular to mean “magitech” (which is a really clunky word), so I’d be interested if that actually happens.

[u/fodigg]

I've been digging through his work since I finished WOT and liked his books even better than the rest. He's great, and Stormlight is the best of the bunch, IMO.

[u/wertraut]

While Sanderson's Worldbuilding is very solid I'll throw in another recommendation. Currently making my way through Malazan and the worldbuilding just keeps blowing my Mind. You get a sense of scale and history no other book has ever given me.

[u/The_Witching_Well]

This man has created many worlds. All incredibly interesting. Mistborn is my favorite.

[u/godofimagination]

I hope I'm not breaking the rules for posting this. I searched and found that some of Brandon's videos have been posted here, so hopefully this is ok. As for context, the video explains everything.